In unrelated news, we now have ALL OUR WRISTBANDS! Batch 1 and the first of Batch 2 shipped this morning and the rest will go out on a very fast rolling basis between today and Thursday. Thank you everyone for your patience and support! We’ll do a more detailed blog post with pictures + such later!

We’ve run into some (very) unexpected troubles regarding the shipment of orders from Batch 1. We placed the order for these wristbands on April 28th and chose an expedited shipping method that the company told us would guarantee their delivery by May 13th. We received a notice that they had been shipped from the factory on Tuesday (May 11th), but the tracking number they gave us did not work. We have been in contact with them since then, trying to determine why there was an error with the tracking number. Obviously, May 13th came and went, and we still had not received the wristbands. This morning we got an e-mail from the company saying that the bands from Batch 1 were “held back for quality reasons” and had shipped later than expected (they do multiple quality checks and have assured us that the quality of the bands is “top-notch”).

When we took orders for Batch 1 we guaranteed delivery by the finale, which is why we are keeping such a close and stressful eye on this shipment. Of course, we gave this guarantee based on the (now not-so-great) guarantee to us that the wristbands would arrive no later than yesterday. Luckily, the company has refunded us the hefty price we paid for that “expedited” shipping, which we are setting aside to cover any incidents that we may have with Batch 1. We ask that you please be sympathetic with our situation. However, we know that a number of you ordered from Batch 1 to have these wristbands for finale parties, so if you are seriously concerned about the delivery date of your order (within the U.S. only), please shoot us an e-mail at lostwristbands@gmail.com. Together, we can explore from there if we should look into any expedited shipping methods for you.

Fortunately, last week we did a test shipment of some (non-Lost) wristbands that we had lying around. They were shipped from Boston on a Thursday morning and they arrived in San Diego on Monday. We expect this to be the average time it would take for the wristbands to reach any location within the United States (obviously, international orders will take longer regardless and were not guaranteed arrival by the finale).

Right now, we are expecting that our worst case scenario would have Batch 1 orders shipping out of Boston on Tuesday morning (May 18th). Based on our estimated shipping time from Boston to San Diego, there is still a chance that wristbands shipped on this day could arrive to locations within the U.S. before the finale. Obviously we had hoped to ship the wristbands out yesterday or today so as to have some insurance days to work with in regards to getting Batch 1 delivered before the 23rd.

We will continue to be in contact with the company all day today and will likely not be able to stop staring out our apartment window for FedEx trucks, as we have been doing it compulsively since Wednesday. We promise to deliver updates to you as we get them and are remaining optimistic about these Batch 1 deliveries.

Once again, we cannot even begin to express our gratitude to those of you who have supported us throughout our conceptualization and implementation of this idea. We sincerely apologize for the amount of time you have had to wait, not only for your wristbands to ship and arrive, but to even see photos of the final product. The two of us can hardly focus on anything else but the fact that we still do not have these bands around our wrists and in the mail to you all.

We hope to have more updates for you soon.

Namaste,
Anita & Sam @ LOST Wristbands

P.S. The winners of the Twitter giveaway will still be announced tonight at the (updated) time of 9:00 p.m. EST. So make sure you get your entry in by then (see previous post for details) and stay tuned to @lostwristbands to see if you won!

We have 8 wristbands stashed away specifically for Twitter giveaways, which we love! There will be 2 giveaways, of 4 wristbands each. The first winners will be announced this Friday at 5 PM EST, and we will start taking entries now.

Rules to Enter:

– You must be following @lostwristbands on Twitter, and retweet this phrase:

With all the pre-sale madness behind us, we wanted to take a moment to offer a big THANK YOU to everyone who showed their interest in our wristbands and spread the word.

We’re just two regular college students who had an idea last week. Now, a week and a half later, over500 wristbands have been sold and $525 total is going to the Children’s Defense Fund. We can’t even believe how fast this all happened and how supportive people have been of this idea. In full disclosure, we probably should have been packing and preparing for our graduations next weekend, but we’re running a small business instead (and it’s much more fun). We cannot wait to get the wristbands and ship them out next week, and we’re even more excited to hear your feedback and see pictures of you guys wearing your wristbands!

To all those who did not get one: Thank YOU too! Because of your demand, we know we are ordering more, and we’re excited for you to finally get them. Basically, by the end of this whole operation we’ll have donated at least $1,000 to charity. That’s amazing.

Remember, our next batch will go on sale May 24th and will ship in early June. There will also be Twitter giveaways over the next 2 weeks. Stay tuned for more info on these.

Also, keep in mind that BigCartel’s system works in such a way that once an item has been added to someone’s cart, they have it on hold until they check out. That’s most likely the problem that most people were having–all of the items get put into carts really quickly and the system gets confused (probably just as confused as some of you were 1 minute into Monday’s sale when it said there were no more wristbands)!

WOW. We really did not expect for these wristbands to go that fast. However, we now know that the demand for the Wednesday and Friday batches is going to be just as insane and just as frustrating for those of you who can’t get your order in. So we want to let you let you know now:

THERE WILL BE MORE WRISTBANDS!

And here’s the explanation as to why we’ve been selling them in such a strange way:

The two of us are graduating from college next week, and we’re moving across the country at the end of the month. We’re going to be working our butts off to try and get these first two batches (first batch guaranteed) out to everyone before the finale. However, at a certain point we’re going to have to put our ordering and mailing operation on hold for a couple weeks (to, you know, pack, move, enter the real world, etc).

SO, after this week of crazy frenzy purchasing, we WILL be ordering more wristbands. They will go up for sale the day after the finale airs (May 24th) and they will begin shipping in early June. These wristbands won’t have any sort of limit on them–we will order as many as we need to so that we can meet your guys’ demand.

We know the system this week is stressful and frustrating, but keep in mind that if you miss out Wednesday and Friday, you will definitely be able to purchase a wristband after the finale–no question. The advantage to this week is that you will get your wristband earlier (maybe even before the finale). So if you’re willing to put up with the craziness–rock on! It’s pretty exciting for us, and we’re sure it is for you. So please, keep e-mailing us your questions and comments, and enjoy tomorrow’s episode! We love you guys already and we haven’t even met you. LOST has that power, I guess.

P.S. After this week we will also have Twitter contests where we will be giving away free wristbands! So the fun really never stops!

Thought I’d post a little reminder, in case it’s not clear for our new fans how we’re operating:

When you place an order, be advised it is technically a pre-sale. It will not ship immediately. We have been selling our batches before they arrive to us so we can judge how many more to order if the current batch sells out. This way, we can ensure as many people who want them can have a good chance at getting one.

For Batch 1(If you bought one via our pre-sale last Thursday): This batch will arrive on May 13th the latest. Therefore, they will be shipped any time between May 11th – May 14th.

For Batch 2 (This week’s Monday/Wed/Fri pre-sale): This batch will arrive May 14th the latest. Therefore, they will be shipped between May 12th – May 15th.

We don’t want you to worry if a week has passed and you haven’t received your order. We will communicate with you here throughout the entire process, including posting pictures when they arrive to us and updating when batches have shipped to you. For more information on guaranteed delivery and international shipping, check our FAQs link. And as always, if you’re wondering “Batches? Pre-sale? What the heck does this mean?!” e-mail us – we love to hear questions and comments!